13 Reasons to Learn a New Language
by Green the Cat
Summary: Have you ever been told to learn a new language? Have you ever wondered what reason you had to do so? Well, Steven has thirteen reasons for you to learn a new language.


Hello, it's Green the Cat! I had a thought the other day and I went with it. So enjoy, see bottom for details.

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1. Learn How to Conduct Business

Steven was expected to take over his father's company, but he really didn't want to. He was quite content just searching around for stones.

His father was not of the same opinion. Fortunately, he was willing to compromise. Steven's search took him many different places, mostly foreign after he had been through all the spots in Hoenn.

Steven's goal: Learn at least one new language before he returned to Hoenn. Steven thought the objective was better alternative, as well as an opportunity to gain access to new searching places, than taking over the company which just happened to be the cost of failure.

2. Know the Location of a Toilet

After one of the longest boat rides, Steven found himself in Kanto and in a rush to locate the bathroom. The first person, he asked as politely as possible. He received a quizzical glance, but the man pointed to a building. Steven thought it a bit odd, but nodded and gave quick 'thank you' before walking away. Though upon arriving at the building, he figured what was odd about the building. It was actually a bathroom, bathhouse being the correct English term. He did not go in, merely rested his hand on his forehead before running it through his hair as he exhaled. Something tapped his shoulder.

A young girl greeted him, a brunette with equally brown eyes and an oversized white hat. Her traveling companion was a bit more intimidating than May's Blaziken or Brendan's Swampert. Fire rippled on its back, crossing its large shoulders, and Steven quickly gathered to not anger the creature.

"Toilets are there. You'll need this.," she said while handing him a pack of tissues.

"Thank you.," he said, briefly nodding his head in her direction. Steven ran this time, his dignity be damned.

3. Finding Living Accommodations

Steven had thought that toilet episode earlier had been bad, he never expected getting a room to be worse. Now he knew why his father hadn't allowed him to make reservations, damn receptionist.

"One room, don't care about size.," he said. Again. For the fourth time.

He raised a finger at her confused stare. "One."

She smiled and nodded, then typed in something and handed him a key.

"Thank you."

Steven took the stairs for the sole reason that he was afraid the elevator would have buttons with kanji or something on them. Upon arriving, he opened the door and promptly brought his head to the doorway. It was much bigger than he thought it was going to be and traditional, apparently one had to go to Saffron for a Western style room if they were in Kanto. He looked down and saw the fairly apparent why.

He was dressed in what was classified as suit despite however outlandish he ended up turning it. Add the rings on his fingers and the way he unknowingly carried himself, no real wonder why he got this room. With no proper way to communicate, appearance heavily affected what happened or how it happened. Damn it.

4. Find Something to Watch on TV

He knew he did not think this through when it started raining the next day. Steven was a wanderer no matter what title he had held, but rain was something he avoided if at all possible. Maybe it had something to do with his mother, but Steven remembered when he was barely six or seven and catching a ferry to closest known region or whatever. His father picked Hoenn and they moved. While Mr. Stone raised Devon Corp. from the ruins his mother had left it in, Steven had studied and studied through at-home tutors. All of which were English-speaking like the region of Hoenn itself, but they didn't carry the accent or know what very little slang he had picked up and then he left.

Thunder crashed outside, reminding him that he really needed something to do while he was stuck inside. Fortunately, despite the setting around there was a TV, though Steven quickly found it was leaning to be unfortunate.

No matter what channel he tried, everything was in Japanese. Even the fucking subtitles. Least the content, from what Steven saw, wasn't as bad as some Western television. He turned the TV off and fell back onto to the bed thing. Steven groaned and decided that the day was going to be terrible.

5. Order Food

The tie for second worst experience so far was a toss up between the bathroom thing or Steven's current situation. Terrible as it was, he almost couldn't not laugh at the sheer idiocy of it. Ordering dinner.

He thought that it wouldn't be too terrible, he was proven wrong both quickly and thoroughly. The menu had no pictures and was written entirely in characters. Steven was lost when the waiter appeared to know less English than he knew Japanese. Not a damn word. He eventually just pointed to something and asked for some water.

Now as he stared down at his food, Steven was beginning to wonder if he shouldn't have just used a vending machine. He quickly realized that vending machines did not accept credit cards. Steven learned just how grateful he was for attending some of his father's business meetings.

While he couldn't speak a word that was actually understood, he did know how to use chopsticks.

6. Shopping for Things

To at least figure out something, even to ask for water or the location of a toilet, Steven figured he would buy a Japanese-English dictionary. The salesperson wasn't helpful, but he would take broken English over none at all. Even as little as he talked, he was human and did need to do so every now and then. Steven was just about to give up when a voice sounded next to him. He didn't take note until he realized he knew the girl speaking… kind of.

The salesperson left and the girl faced him, he cocked his head.

"Did you even bother to learn anything?," she asked while pulling at her bangs before twirling them around her finger. Steven shook his head.

"Wrong gesture, like this for no.," she said while shaking her hand in motion he had shaken his head.

"Yes would be…?," he asked, something new and helpful.

She merely nodded in response before speaking again, "Though you are not meaning to, you are rude. Bow, though you may manage with an incline of your head."

"Eh? I'm sorry, I came here the same day I found out I made a deal with the devil.," Steven explained, well… hopefully explained as he scratched the back of his head.

The salesperson returned and exchanged words with the girl who had given him knowledge instead of left him fumbling around. The clerk turned and handed him the book and, after his helper pinched him, gave a brief incline of his head. Soon, the embarrassing event was over and the girl was walking off.

"Thank you for the help.," he said, he had figured out that yelling was not a good idea.

She took on a confused expression and walked back towards him. He noticed she toyed with a PokéBall as she stood in front of him.

"Where I'm from, and how I was taught, we thank people who give them a tremendous amount of help with a reward. To encourage the repeat behavior of being a 'nice' person.," Steven said quickly, he could feel his cheeks getting warm.

"Very well, I will agree to your customs."

"My name is Steven Stone, from Hoenn for the most part. I'd like to take you out for lunch today.," he offered while giving a respectful Western bow - one arm behind his back while the other rested across his chest and he tilted at forty-five degree angle from his waist.

The girl looked completely dumbfounded by his action with the way both of her hands clenched at her bag's straps. She nodded and gave a short, quick bow.

"Maeda Kotone, a pleasure to meet you.," the brunette said.

Lunch with Kotone was odd, but Steven figured she had never met someone from another region before. He had asked for her number for the sole reason that she was the only one who had been willing to help him. Kotone had agreed at the cost of giving him a crash course in Japanese. Steven predicted that he had just made a lifelong friend.

7. Make New Friends

Steven wasn't off in his prediction though befriending her was a bit difficult. Communicating was harder than he thought it would be, but later found it was easier than Kotone thought it would be. He cast a golden glance her direction as she leaned back to take a drink of soda.

"You look odd.," Kotone said. He raised an eyebrow at that comment.

"I suppose I do, silver hair isn't the most common of things.," he said with a nod of his head.

The brunette gave him a half-smile, her brown eyes twinkling, then began rapidly quizzing him on what little Japanese he had picked up in the three days he had known her. Steven struggled to keep up and pronounce the words correctly. She pinched him every time he messed up on pronunciation. However, a few hours later he could actually read a menu when she pulled him into a small diner for early dinner.

"No, Steven, 'e' is pronounced like 'eh'.," Kotone said after he almost ended up ordering something completely different from what he wanted. He noticed that she had trouble pronouncing his name.

"Need help in English?," Steven asked as he propped his head on his hand. She gave a sheepish laugh and she wiped her finger under her nose, her cheeks turning pink.

Kotone nodded and asked for his number, a sign that she truly wanted to keep in touch with him.

8. Avoid Self-Embarrassment

Despite his increasingly fluency in Japanese, Steven still had quite a few problems. One being the simple fact that some words had multiple meanings even when strung together with other words. His problem rested in his inability to remember what words went with what to gain the desired sentence. Kotone eventually caved and helped him after one particular incident during his stay in Vermillion.

What Steven had meant to say was 'what is this', what he actually said… He groaned and promptly slammed his head down onto the table. Kotone gave him a look.

"It could not have been that bad.," she said trying to coax the young man into confiding with her.

"Let's sum it up as I don't even know what I said.," he answered, eventually peeking out from underneath his hair. "The clerk laughed at me, though he nodded when I mentioned you and then tried to help me."

"I apologize for not speaking sooner, but I am the Johto-Kanto Champion.," Kotone said.

"Help me before I embarrass myself… again."

Kotone merely laughed and pulled out a notebook. Next up was writing and reading, and though Steven knew he would help him grasp the language faster, he was a bit nervous. He didn't want his face to permanently be red, once was plenty for that kind of mortification.

9. Understand the Locals

Steven had taken to traveling with Kotone once winter rolled around, he didn't see a lot of snow at home, if ever. He never understood people once they started talking too quickly, usually behind his back as he walked next to his friend. Fortunately, his father called to check on his progress.

"Hello, Steven.," Mr. Stone greeted.

"I have learned something. I'm not exactly fluent, but I can actually speak Japanese now. At the very least, I know what not to say.," Steven responded, the whispers behind him were distracting. Very distracting.

"Something wrong?," his father asked as Steven looked around while on his PokéNav. He had heard more whispers.

"No, but something just came up. I'll call you back later.," Steven answered and turned off the device.

Kotone walked slightly ahead of him, her hat seemed deflated to him somehow. He guessed that she knew what they were talking about. Steven shrugged and walked a bit closer to her.

"Do you know what they're whispering about?," he asked. He was truly curious.

"You.," the girl answered and tried to walk away from him. Steven grabbed her shoulder as gently as he could while keeping her in place.

"What about me?"

Kotone spun around on her heel, the winter wind whipping her chocolate hair around, her pigtails almost coming undone with the motion. She looked hurt, angry even. He cocked his head and stared at her, noticing the shift in the air. It was going to snow again soon, even though a few inches of snow still lay on the ground, glistening in the pale light overhead. Clouds were covering the sun as Steven stared down at Kotone, waiting for her to speak.

"You are foreign. You do not dress your age. You follow me because you can't read a map for this area. You gave up next to everything for nothing except a language you still have trouble with. You are my friend.," Kotone said, poking at him with every sentence, her accent becoming more and more pronounced as she continued on.

He knew nothing good was about to follow whatever she said next. Something tugged at his heart as she started crying just as the snow started to fall from the heavens.

"All of this says you could only be my friend, people say so and the rumors say you are not who you claim to be. They say are older than you admit, that you are poor, that you are a womanizer. I should walk away from you, never look back, but-," Kotone rambled, her voice growing more erratic. Steven took a guess at what she doing and decided to help her out. He cut her off quite effectively, pressing his lips to hers until he felt her relax beneath his hand.

Whispers sounded from around them, but he shut them up with quick hand gesture and allowed the weather to convince them to leave. Steven looked at Kotone. She seemed much calmer so he stepped back and lead her to bench near the path they were traveling on. They sat down and he waited for her to speak. She didn't even look at him, instead mumbling in Japanese under her breath.

"You do know that was the weirdest confession I ever even heard of?," Steven asked as he leaned his head back to look up at the clouds pouring snow. He heard a rustle next to him, then his face was turned by a cold hand and he felt Kotone kiss him. When this registered in his mind, he reciprocated until she pulled away.

"Yes, I think that counts as the weirdest confession.," Steven said, a smile tugging at his lips.

Kotone smacked him on the back of his head.

10. Higher Education

"Damn, damn, damn, fuck!," Steven said, once more in his hotel room. The day was not starting well.

Kotone had needed to go do something for Indigo Plateau and this left him to remember that he had to call his own League. Problem was that he couldn't find his PokéNav. He threw a shirt and a pillow over his shoulder before cussing once more. Cool composure be damned, he needed his PokéNav. Desperately.

Another pillow flew across the room and Steven decided to just flop on the bed-like thing, he still didn't know what it was. He reached a pale hand out and gave in, he really needed to call someone before Drake murdered him. After several call mishaps, Steven finally got the hotel phone to work. It rang once, then twice, and finally someone answered.

"Who in the hell-"

"Hello, Drake, it's Steven.," he said, the words rushing out of his mouth before the old sailor could finish talking or start talking again. "I made a deal with my dad and I'm in Kanto right now, could you have Wallace cover for me?"

"Steven?"

"Yes, Drake?"

"Do I want to know?"

"Probably not, but call my dad and ask him to work out payment for you guys. This was his idea in the first place, I just agreed.," Steven said, now talking slower since Drake had ceased using foul mutterings while Steven talked.

"Fine, just get your bum back here soon. Bloody fucking whacker." The line went dead after a few more curses and Steven held the phone from his ear just in case. After a few moments he hung up the phone, then something occurred to him.

He could use this experience to do two things: A) Work on his battle strategy and tactics and B) Learn how to write something so Phoebe couldn't read it.

11. Reading Material

One day, Kotone had walked in and deposited a parcel on his lap. She gave him a kiss on the cheek before leaving. What he soon learned was that Kotone's mother was fairly old-fashioned and this didn't bode well for him. Now how the woman had found his father's number, he didn't know until his PokéNav fell out of the parcel. That explained why he couldn't the thing for damn near a month. Steven did not expect to see the book he saw nor the note he read, the note was more disturbing than the book.

Not only did translating the paper take some time, his Japanese reading level wasn't that high, but shocked him for several moments. Steven called Kotone while he held the note up to look at it while they spoke. She answered on the first ring.

"Did your mother just force us into marriage?" Steven knew that wasn't what he should have said, but it happened to be the only he could say.

"Yes.," she answered, as calmly as if they were discussing the weather.

"Why?"

"Despite the fact that you are foreign, you are the Hoenn Champion and a member of the Stone family of Devon Corporation. Mother said that she trusted you enough to at least take care of me."

"Right… Well, not exactly what I planned to talk about when I originally called.," Steven said as he lay the note on the low table in his room.

"What did you call about then?," Kotone asked.

"What's with the book?"

"A complete Pokédex for all five regions with guide for both finding and breeding Pokémon.," she answered, then hung up. Steven looked at his PokéNav, then decided that she must really dislike talking on the phone. All of her conversations on the device, no matter who she spoke to, were short and abrupt.

He shrugged and opened the book. He had new reading material that would further his knowledge of the Japanese language. Wait, why did this sound odd?

12. Respect for Others

Steven had never imagined getting married. He was only nineteen for Arceus' sake! Even so, Steven learned that this was one of those times to just shut up and go with it. Kotone's mother was strict, though he supposed it came from living in small town that barely counted as a town. Kotone looked more frazzled than he did, but he soon learned that she was barely sixteen.

Steven thought for several moments before deciding what he was about to say to the woman. Over his six month stay in Kanto, now Johto, he had learned quite a bit. Foreigners generally had to earn respect and, somehow, he had managed to earn enough respect that a woman he had barely knew trusted him with her only daughter. It hit him at that moment, Kotone was her only child. The brunette next to him was the first female Champion for the region and people were becoming a bit upset that no one could defeat her. She had offered to step down, thus cutting off her only income. To Kotone's mother, Maeda-san she had said, this was in the best interest for both parties. He could avoid the unwanted female attention in Hoenn and Kotone had her future secured, it helped that they were already dating. He took a deep breath, then responded in the best Japanese he could manage - Maeda-san didn't know any English.

"I agree to your proposition."

The ceremony was small and private and barely anyone knew about it. It was only Kotone, Maeda-san, some priest, and himself. Steven didn't protest as that meant he got to call his father before the tabloids got a hold of this bit of information.

Joy.

13. Expanding Horizons

Kotone looked as nervous as he suspected he did the first day he had arrived in Kanto, her hands clenching at the sleeve of his jacket. Steven had offered to take her to Unova after meeting with his father, the man had demanded to meet Kotone after Steven had called him. She had nodded her acceptance of the location, Unova was far away from the prying tabloids of both Hoenn and Johto, Kanto by association. The ferry docked and Steven led Kotone over to his father, now her father-in-law. The man looked surprised at first as the Johto girl shuffled her feet and refused to make eye contact.

"Dad, this is Kotone. I met her in Vermillion City on the day I first arrived. I've known her for about seven months.," Steven and pushed Kotone towards his father before whispering to her in Japanese, "He won't bite."

Kotone peeked up at his father from beneath her bangs and was almost surprised by the lack of resemblance between the two males, if her expression was her true thoughts on the matter. Steven knew he looked next to nothing like the man in front of him. Kotone bowed politely.

"What did you do over there?," his father said, his tone was incredulous as if he didn't believe what he was seeing.

Steven smiled, his first true smile in a long time, and laughed.

"I learned thirteen reasons to learn a new language."

* * *

There you go, just pure fluff and cuteness from yours truly. Since I imagine Johto and Kanto as Japan and I see Hoenn as Australia, I was humored by the thought of sending poor, uni-lingual Steven to Kanto. Hopefully, you find it as amusing as I found the idea.

I would really like to hear your thoughts about this piece, so review or something, please. Aside from that, I actually did some research while writing this to stay within actual cultural bounds of the three respective regions used. I mean no offense if I got something wrong, if I did I apologize. I'm American. Yes, I know people speak more English than that when you visit another country - maybe - but this wouldn't have been as humorous without most people speaking no English.

Might be a few before I can update 'Ending the Cycle' so offer this for your amusement.

Adieu - Green the Cat


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